Studio gear you can make....

[Dr Mordrid]

If you're thinking abour setting up a small studio but don't have a lot of money for studio hardware there is still hope.

This comes in the form of an an old large format paperback called:

Petersen's Guide to Photo Equipment You Can Make (Petersen Publishing, 1973 by Parry C. Yob)

By "make" they mean out of stock lumber, plywood etc. Because it's an old book some of the electrical stuff is a bit dated, but easily translated to new parts.

While the focus of this book is photography a lot of the gear is also usable by videophiles doing studio work. These include;

1. camera dolly
2. light boom
3. soft light
4. various reflectors
5. background stand
6. posing bench

The rest is pretty much photo specific and includes things like a film drier & washer, dry mounting press, solution warming cabinet etc. etc.

Amazon.com has a source of used copies and they state it can be had in 1-2 days for $8.00 - $20.00.

Petersens Guide to Photo Equipment You Can Make

The camera dolly and background stand plans are worth the $8.00 all by themselves, but the soft light and boom aren't shabby either.

Dr. Mordrid

[Graham Meredith]

"film dryer and washer"

- what is "film"?

Graham

[Fred H]

- what is "film"?

...and it's mine

First I used a washer (2x7.5 meter of film) and THAN the dryer

Fred H

[Jerry Jones]

Bruce Johnson wrote a very decent article about how to put together a great light kit on a shoe string budget:

http://www.dv.com/magazine/2001/0401/bjohnson0401.html

Jerry

[Graham Meredith]

Fred,
Does it have firewire?
Graham

[Flying dutchman]

Fred H:

Is that a "Double-8" device? I used to have one of those when I was a kid!
You had to send in the films for development and they split them in half and glued the two halves together in order to make one large roll of 8 mm film! Those were the days...

[Fred H]

Graham
This model (year ~1943) has no firewire only fire(-celluloid), but my Marvel G400-TV neither has firewire . And the Marvel is considered an old card today . Matrox stopped to support it.
I wonder if someone will remember Matrox year 2061, after all this?
Zeiss IS a trademark!

And do you know what? For a couple of months ago I transferred some films taken with this Zeiss-Ikon and edited them with the Marvel.
Talk about anachronism…

Fred H

[Fred H]

FD
yes it is a "Double-8" with 7.5 m cassets and the final film was 15 m long, split, as you said.
It was my fathers, but last time I filmed with it myself around ~196?.
As you can see at the picture, the last film was not developed "yet". Maybe it's time to do it

Fred H

[Graham Meredith]

Fred,
What sort of setup did you use to transfer your footage to the G400? Did you just run the projector on a wall and point a video camera and tape it, or did you use one of those projector boxes and a video camera?

Graham

[Fred H]

Graham
I used a projector and a wall. The biggest problem I've had was that my Sony camcorder hasn't manual focus and some second long clip, at the beginning, was unsharpened.
I tried a kind of box too, containing a mirror in 45°, but with the same auto focus problem.
Because my Sony has no problem with the light intensity, I found the wall method better. Longer distance = deeper focus range.
I was forced to crop out some white borders to right format.
Not all of my old films, but the most of them, are taken with this Zeiss-Ikon camera, anyway.

Fred H

[Debbie]

Yes those were the good old days !!

I still have my 8mm Fuji movie camera with an underwater housing I made.

I intend to take it again for a plunge one day when I change a couple of "O" rings.

Debbie

[Fred H]

[Brian Ellis]

OK, I'm in the USA, enjoying the teeming rain in DC, just now, but when I get backin two weeks, I'll post a photo of some of my photo museum, if you wish. It includes both still cameras going back a century and movies going back to the Brownie double-8.

[Fred H]

Sure Brian. Post some photos. It would be nice, and a little nostalgia never hurts
To buy expensive things today is a question of money.
The "art" is to do things with simple "gears", and learn, learn and learn...

Fred H